Page 57 of Bait and Switch
“Stands to reason, though, doesn’t it? She wouldn’t be parted from her backpack. It would’ve had everything she needed in it.”
Casey’s headache was diminishing now that Elton wasn’t scraping the skin off his skull, and he thought Gabe had the right idea. Which, considering the source, made Casey grimace.
Gabriel Karne was a bit like an escaped ping-pong ball that Casey couldn’t quite grab a hold of, but he wasn’t stupid. He encouraged people to think he was flighty and a mess, and no doubt it helped when the man had his Charming Fucker act going. But he was smart, aware, and had good instincts. Sexy.
Dammit again.
“It stands to reason,” Casey reluctantly agreed.
Gabriel blinked and his eyebrows rose toward his hairline.
“It does,” Casey said, knowing he sounded mildly defensive. “I think it’s fairly safe for us to assume that Suzie Warner and her backpack made it up The Valley together, one way or another. Could be she was lured up there, maybe she was dead already.”
A long-buried memory from the one and only time he’d attended the senior bonfire popped into his head. He hadn’t thought about the celebration in years, maybe not since that night, because of what happened afterward.
“What?” demanded Gabe, his eyes narrowed. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m not sure. All this happened a long time ago.” He could hear Elton shuffling around, getting out bowls and spoons. “It’s possible Suzie might have disappeared the same night that Maya was murdered. Did anyone see her after the bonfire? Would anyone on Heartstone have known to look for her?”
Casey and his family had been too wrapped up with Mickie being arrested and accused of Maya’s murder for him to remember much of anything else.
Elton returned with two bowls. Steam rose off the hot soup, and once again Casey realized just how hungry he was. “Not homemade, but we won’t go to bed hungry,” Elton said, handing each of them a bowl before returning for his own.
“I don’t think anyone would have known to look for Suzie Warner,” Elton said as he sat down on the couch, his bowl cupped in his hands. “But there is someone we can ask.”
“Mercy,” said Casey, nodding.
“Mercy?” Gabe parroted.
“Mercy Dawson,” Elton confirmed. “She owns the store and is Suzie Warner’s sister.”
“Whoa.” Gabe set his spoon back into his soup. “Whoa, we can’t just willy-nilly go asking people. What if we’re wrong? As reluctant as I am to actually talk to cops, that’s what we need to do.”
Casey ignored him, forcing himself to think back to the night of the bonfire while he spooned just-hot-enough chicken soup into his mouth. As an incoming high school freshman, he’d been an outlier and very nervous about getting in trouble with his parents. As it turned out, his parents never learned he’d been at the beach that night. Maya’s death had eclipsed everything.
All the older island kids had been there, including Calvin and Dwayne Perkins. Even Gordon MacDonald, who hadn’t been in high school yet either. And Greta, of course.
“Greta.” He set his empty bowl down and shoved his hand into his side pocket, searching for his cell. When he pulled it out, the damn thing was dead. “Shit.”
“Yeah, you forgot to end the call—that’s how we were able to hear the fuckery that was going on. Not an experience I want to repeat, thank you very much.” Gabe’s cheeks reddened andhe avoided eye contact with Casey, as if he’d unintentionally admitted…something.
Huh.
“Here, use mine.” Elton handed over the cordless receiver to his landline.
Dismissing thoughts of Charming Fucker in any capacity other than irritating neighbor, Casey quickly punched in Greta’s number and put her on speaker.
“Elton!” she exclaimed. “Do you know if Casey is okay? I’ve been trying to reach him since I got back from Westfort, and his phone keeps going to voicemail. I know the fire was put out up there because I talked to Jeremiah, who told me he’d been hurt. Attacked? When I get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him. If he’s dead already, I’m going to revive him and kill him again!”
“Greta—” Casey tried.
“I very clearly told him to call and let me know he was okay—wait, what? Casey? That you? You okay?”
“Yeah, a few bumps and bruises, but I’ll be fine. Look, before you kill me, we have a question for you. It’s about the senior bonfire the year Maya Crane was murdered. You’re on speaker. Gabriel and Elton are here too.”
Casey could picture Greta changing gears from full-on pissed off and scared to curious.
“Okay, sure, I’m intrigued.”
